Utah State Office of Education Study Reveals the Vitality of Reading Horizons Reading Program

April 27, 2010 - PRLog -- In 2006, the Utah State Office of Education and the Institute for Behavioral Research in Creativity (IBRIC) began conducting a study at Iron Springs Elementary in Cedar City, Utah. The study was recently concluded, and the results revealed the effectiveness of the Discover Intensive Phonics reading program from Reading Horizons. The results confirmed that this type of intensive phonics instruction is especially impactful for students in Kindergarten through third grade.  

Study reveals positive attitudes about Discover Intensive Phonics:

The results of the study revealed that both students and teachers had positive attitudes about Discover Intensive Phonics. Teacher reports revealed that teachers were satisfied and pleased with the professional development offered by Reading Horizons, which trained the teachers in the proper instruction techniques and program application.

Students also reported positive attitudes about reading, in accordance with the program. Students who participated in the program reported more-positive attitudes about reading than students not participating in the program. The only group that did not report significantly higher positive attitudes about reading was the students in the first grade who were beginning the program. However, when these students continued with the program, their attitudes about reading significantly improved.

Study reveals Discover Intensive Phonics provides best results when used as a 3-year program:

Discover Intensive Phonics provided the highest reading improvement in students who were involved in the program consistently for three years. The best results came from students who began the program at an early grade, such as Kindergarten or first grade. By tracking long-term improvement, the study also revealed that students who participated in the program in third grade had consistently higher scores on language arts in the fifth grade.

Study reveals Discover Intensive Phonics provides consistent improvement:

The study revealed that Discover Intensive Phonics provided consistent improvement in reading scores in comparison to the scores of the state of Utah and the control school.  In second grade, the control school showed a sporadic spike in reading improvement, which exceeded the students involved in the Discover Intensive Phonics program, but the results were not consistent and did not remain over time. The state of Utah reading scores were flat over the duration of the study, with slight inclines and declines, but the students of Iron Springs consistently showed reading improvement.  

In order to provide teachers with the tools to effectively teach students to read, Reading Horizons offers Professional Development and Online Training.  For more information on these resources visit: http://www.readinghorizons.com/solutions/training/index.aspx

Resources

To view the complete study with additional graphs and charts visit: http://www.readinghorizons.com/research/studies/printable...

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Founded in 1984, Reading Horizons has spent the last two decades developing and perfecting computer software for elementary, secondary and adult reading instruction based on the effective Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself (DIP) method.